restorARTively

**Guest Bloggers are welcome on this site as a way to encourage voices from all stakeholders and perspectives. The opinions do not necessarily agree with that of the host blogger, Mary Ellen Mannix. In recent times, others have appeared to express concern about the apparent shortage of primary care doctors in the United States. Both presently as well as in the years to come, others speculate that the shortage of primary care doctors (PCPs) will continue to progress to even greater absence of PCPs that what exists now.Less than 20 percent of medical school graduates go for primary care as a specialty as a residency program today. Typically, the main reason believed by many is lack of pay compared with other medical specialties. Some anticipate a shortage of 60 thousand or so primary care doctors in the future within the United States. The PCP doctors who practice right now would not recommend their specialty, or their profession, it has been reported. I believe their value as PCPs has n...

This week eight years ago, Dylan's mom had an ultrasound and the doctor commented "There's almost enough fluid for me to be concerned." With that he sent her home. She was scheduled for an induction in a matter of days, anyway. The fluid remained in her womb with her full term baby boy. But before the scheduled induction, Dylan's mom experienced a an unnerving and shocking sudden pain from within her belly. It made her feel like her insides were going to fall out. She was forced to crawl on her knees for the pain was unbearable. She was also quickly losing strength. She called the doctor and was told, "If you aren't in labor, we'll have to send you home." She and her husband raced to the hospital immediately and no one was waiting for their arrival. It seemed to the doctor(s) that there was no emergency. She made it to the hospital. Then waited. And waited. And waited. Dylan's mom had insurance. Yet, she still waited an interminably long few ...

I will be there with a variety of health care safety information including how to keep children and their families healthy as the school year begins. 7th Congressional District of Pennsylvania Working Family Resources Summit Saturday August 1, 2009 Interboro High School16th and Amousland Road, Prospect Park PA 19076 This venue is air conditioned and handicap accessible. Registration: 9:30 AM Event: 10:00AM – 1:00PM As the result of our Nation’s extraordinary economic recession, I have seen families throughout the 7th Congressional District struggle across three generations to cope with historically high unemployment, record foreclosure rates, loss of pension plans, devalued homes, rising costs of education, expensive health care, and the ever-present threat of increased energy prices. Although I am aggressively working with my colleagues in Congress to address these issues legislatively, and through my constituent office to engage the unique problems of individuals, I believe more mus...

Today, I was asked what we could all (stakeholders) do to return our health care system to that which saved my eyesight when I was eight years old (Thank you, Dr. Negry , Havertown , PA). This gentleman theorized "its all about incentives" and all about the patient. I only disagree in so much it is not ALL about the patient - it IS all about RELATIONSHIPS. The patient & physician relationship, the patient & his/her family's relationship, the doctor's relationship with his peers, the nurses, and administration etc.... There is a security that relationships offer that external incentives can never provide. Decision making processes are directly impacted by the emotions that we are experiencing or have previously experienced in similar situations. The best way to encourage positive decision making is within a supportive environment. Such an environment requires active care to nurturing healthy relationships - professional and personal. I spoke to my primary ye...

DECLINING MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CLAIMS, INCREASING MEDICAL ERRORS A simple analysis by the Committee for Justice for All in Kingston, Pennsylvania compared public information available on medical malpractice claims as opposed to medical errors. The data consists of Mcare Fund payouts, commercial insurance claims and Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority data. The Mcare Fund is a creature of the Pennsylvania Insurance Department and supplies half the medical malpractice insurance coverage that doctors and hospitals are required to carry as a result of medical errors that cause harm to patients. The data shows the number of case filings according to the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts as of April 2009. In the year 2000 the number of case filings throughout the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was 2,632. That already small number fell every year for which statistics have been kept down to 1,602 in 2008. Considering the number of hospital admissions in Pennsylvania, that ...

Contacts:Mary Ellen Mannix , Founder, PULSE of PA 610-299-0478 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - JULY 15, 2009 LUCIAN LEAPE , M.D. RECEIVES 1st NIGHTINGALE & CODMAN PATIENT SAFETY DAY AWARD PULSE of PA is proud to collaborate with national patient safety advocates who have bestowed the Inaugural Florence Nightingale and Dr. E. Codman Patient Safety Day Award to LUCIAN LEAPE M.D., Adjunct Professor of Health Policy, Harvard School of Public Health, pediatric surgeon, and health care safety pioneer. July 25, 2009 is the 9 th annual Patient Safety Day and the 10 th anniversary of the Institute of Medicine’s groundbreaking patient safety in America report to Congress. Florence Nightingale was one of the first epidemiologists, statisticians, evidence-based practitioners and patient safety pioneers in nursing and health care . Dr. Codman followed suit with a stellar surgical career based on hospital evidence-based “end results” theory and practice.Nightingale and Codman represented the ...

Unless you have been under a rock the past two months, you are aware of the current push by our new president to reform health care in the United States. Because of the priority he has given this issue, health care is squarely centered under a national microscope. Finally difficult aspects of our health care system are beginning to be revealed publicly. This has encouraged fuller discussions. We are closer to accepting what the real "disease" in our system is - preventable medical errors. The president and congress are using the term "quality". Today Pennsylvania's Governor has taken a page out of President Obama's playbook by airing on YouTube his arguments for his budget proposal which includes an increase in taxes and Medicaid cuts. Hospital administrators have warned that if the Governor's plan passes as is there could be 8,0000+ job losses in the industry and that there would be inevitable cuts in trauma, obstetrics and burn care. ( Burling ...

A recently documentary being aired on PBS stations called "As We Forgive" highlights the struggles of the people who survived that country's genocide. Beyond the idea that forgiveness can be present in a land where so much unnecessary death and evil occurred , Rwanda is unique for putting the people that committed genocide living within the communities of the victims' families. The concept of forgiveness in this scenario is not as intriguing as much as the space allowed for people to speak, listen, and try to understand someone else. Instead of isolation people in conflict are finding space within their hearts for the possibility of a peaceful mutual survival. The best endings are the ones least expected and hard won. This is probably why I keep trying to create space for providers and patients to discuss, listen, learn, understand the other's perception and experience. In an age where legislators are finally starting to "get it" and demanding through l...

A few recent developments have set me off balance: The WSJ OpEd piece, a collection of health risk managers, and a group of fellow heart moms who successfully diminished the impact of my son's loss and the work I did in seven years to understand his death and offer compassion to his medical providers. I am reminded that the health care system has known about the life-threatening issues within its profession for well over ten years. They know them so well the common comparison is made to air travel. The amount of deaths each year to preventable medical errors is equal to a jumbo jet crashing every day leaving no survivors. This brought memory of the words of Susan Cohen. Her daughter, Theo, was one of the passengers killed on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1998. "There was the grief group therapist who told me she was worried about my anger, that I should open my heart. .... It was an open, bleeding wound......I didn't need anyone telling me there was something wrong with my enorm...